In the rich river bottom lands of northern Germany and Russia where actinomyces abound actinomycosis is common in the form of papillæ of greater or lesser size on the lips and nose of horse and ox. The abrasion of these parts by thorns, thistles, stubble, dry fibrous fodders and other irritants, appears to produce a raw surface for the colonization of the germ, which is not slow to avail of the opportunity. The resulting lesions take the appearance of warty looking elevations, more or less indurated, which on section show the sulphur yellow actinomyces tufts of club-shaped cells converging to a central mycelial mass.
Treatment is simple as the disease is at first essentially local, and is easily checked by the local application of iodine. The wartlike elevations may be shaved off with a razor or cut off with sharp scissors and the surface painted once or twice daily with tincture of iodine. If there is suspicion of distant or deepseated actinomycosis the internal treatment with potassium iodide will be in order.
In different parts of Europe and America, and especially in the warmer regions, or in sheltered gardens, shrubberies, and pastures, different species of the trombidium abound, and the young hexapod larvæ attack man and beast, burrowing under the cuticle and giving rise to extreme itching and persistent and irritating rubbing of the affected part. These parasites belong to the family of acari or mites, so that the condition they produce is one of acariasis or mange, only the offender is not a compulsory parasite, but appears to survive in certain soils and in the vegetation independently of animal hosts. Their parasitism is therefore accidental and non-essential to their survival.
The trombidian parasite usually found in Europe is the Trombidium Holosericeum or silky trombidium, so small (in its larval state) that it is just visible to the naked eye as a bright scarlet point when moving on a dark background. It was formerly called Leptus Autumnalis and is familiarly known as the red beast, bete rouge, harvest bug, etc. The common American species is of a dull brick red, so that it is less easily detected even on a dark background. It is familiarly known as the jigger, though quite distinct from the chigoe or burrowing flea of the West Indies.
The domestic herbivora get these parasites on the nose and lips while browsing on the pastures and contract an intolerable itching which may lead to violent rubbing, abrasions and scabby exudations. The skin becomes thickened, scabby and rigid, and as new accessions are constantly received the malady continues until cold weather sets in. The affection is not in any sense dangerous, and the attacks may be warded off by a daily application of one of the common parasiticides—decoction of tobacco, tar water, solution of creolin, naphthalin, etc. The mere seclusion of the infested animal indoors, without green food, will cure, as the larvæ pass through their parasitic stage in a few days and drop off.
Mature animals most subject: Causes in horse, mechanical, chemical, microbian irritants—alkalies, acids, caustics, hot mashes, ferments, fungi, rank grasses, excess of chlorophyll, clover, alfalfa, acrid vegetables, bacterial infection secondary, acrid insects in food; symptomatic of gastritis, pharyngitis, diseased teeth, specific fevers. Symptoms: Congestion and tumefaction of buccal mucosa, lips and salivary glands; Epithelial desquamation; fœtor; salivation; froth; papules; vesicles. Prognosis. Treatment: Cool soft food; antiseptics; wet applications to skin; derivatives.
This is much more common in the adult than in suckling domestic animals. None of the domestic mammals or birds can be considered immune from it, but as its causes and manifestations differ somewhat it seems well to consider it separately in the different genera.